With a crunchy Oreo crust, these mini chocolate cheesecakes are made with cocoa powder and dark chocolate, then baked in a muffin pan for perfectly rich and creamy individual chocolate cheesecakes. They’re rich, creamy, and just dense enough to carry a ton of flavor without feeling too heavy, just like my mini turtle cheesecakes.
When developing this recipe, I tested quite a few batches to try to get the chocolatey flavor I wanted. Using just cocoa powder was easiest, but it resulted in a fairly generic chocolate flavor. Adding melted chocolate gave me that deep chocolate flavor I was looking for, along with the perfect chocolate cheesecake texture and a snappy crust!
This recipe makes 12 mini dark chocolate cheesecakes that you can easily serve at events, or freeze in bulk and defrost one at a time for a personal little treat. Top them with vanilla whipped cream and chocolate shavings or sprinkles for extra presentation points, or eat them plain—they’re deliciously indulgent either way!
Ingredients for Mini Double Chocolate Cheesecakes
Individual double chocolate cheesecakes are made with both cocoa powder and dark chocolate for a true, deep chocolate flavor. If I’m looking to impress, I’ll add a swirl of homemade vanilla whipped cream and a few chocolate shavings (made by using a vegetable peeler or ribbon grater on a bar of chocolate). Read on for each ingredient’s purpose and common substitutions if you have a dietary restriction.
- Oreos. Regular Oreos have the best balance of cream filling to chocolate cookie to make the cookie crust stick together. I don’t recommend using Oreo Thins or double-stuffed Oreos, but gluten-free Oreos are a fine substitute!
- Salted butter. I recommend using salted butter for the best flavor, though you can use unsalted if you prefer. The butter helps the cookie crumbs to stick together once baked.
- Salt. A couple big pinches go a long way to enhance all of the flavors.
- Dark chocolate. Higher quality dark chocolate made a big difference in flavor during my test batches. I recommend good quality dark chocolate (around 70%) for best results. Though if you’re in a pinch, semisweet chocolate chips will still turn out really good cheesecakes.
- Cream cheese. This is the main component of the cheesecake, so use full-fat cream cheese in its block form, like the 8-oz block from Philadelphia—not the tubs. It’s also important that it is close to or at room temperature to prevent lumps.
- Granulated sugar. Sugar adds sweetness and moisture, and it also helps to prevent cracks while baking.
- Vanilla extract. Vanilla bean paste or extract both work well here to add a little extra flavor.
- Cocoa powder. A Dutch-processed cocoa powder will give you the strongest chocolate flavor, but any cocoa powder will work.
- Eggs. The eggs help to firm up the custard just enough to make the cheesecake light and silky while still fully set.
How to Make Chocolate Cheesecakes in a Muffin Pan
This is the fourth recipe I’ve shared for mini cheesecakes made in a muffin pan in the last year! I’ve learned quite a few tricks to baking mini cheesecakes perfectly, and I always pass those onto you. I prefer making mini cheesecakes compared to full-sized ones because they take way less cream cheese, don’t require a water bath, and bake up far more quickly.
I outlined the entire process below with step-by-step process images to help ensure your success.
How to Make the Oreo Cookie Crust
First, line a muffin pan (preferably light in color) with 12 paper liners. Typical paper liners will stick to the cheesecakes a little. Parchment liners will barely stick, which makes them easy to peel off but transport more tricky.
Add the Oreos and salt to the bowl of a food processor. If you prefer, you can crush the Oreos in a plastic bag or parchment paper with a rolling pin or wooden spoon instead. Process until fine, then stream in the melted butter. Mix until each crumb is fully coated with butter.
Once the cookie crust looks homogenous, divide the cookie crust into your prepared muffin pan. I use about one packed Tablespoon of the cookie mixture in each paper cup.
To make cleanup a little easier, I like to sacrifice one extra paper liner. Use that liner as a barrier between the crust and a flat-bottomed ¼- or ⅓-cup measuring cup, then press the measuring cup into the cookie crumbs. This will flatten out and pack the crust without getting the bottom of the measuring cup coated in crumbs!
If you don’t have a flat-bottomed measuring cup that fits, you can always use a small glass—or even your fingers!—with the paper liner.
How to Make the Chocolate Cheesecake Filling
One of the biggest reasons cheesecakes crack is because too much air was incorporated into the batter. To prevent this, I use a food processor rather than a stand or hand mixer. The blade of the food processor spins much more quickly, but it doesn’t add quite as much air as the whisk or beater attachments on electric mixers. And because most cheesecake recipes also call for a cookie crust that requires a food processor, using the food processor for the recipe twice helps to cut down on the dishes significantly!
If you don’t have a food processor, you can still use a stand mixer or hand mixer with a large bowl. Just be conscious about how much mixing you’re doing. You don’t want to overdo it!
Melting the Dark Chocolate
First, melt the dark chocolate in the microwave in a small bowl or over a double boiler until smooth. Put the melted chocolate aside and double check that your cream cheese is totally softened, near room temperature. If the cream cheese is too cold, it will chill the melted chocolate, hardening it prematurely and forming lumps in the cheesecake. We don’t want that! If your cream cheese is still pretty cold, let it sit out on the counter for an extra 30 minutes before proceeding.
To make the chocolate cheesecake filling, add the softened cream cheese, granulated sugar, cocoa powder, salt, and vanilla extract to your bowl. Pulse until combined, then scrape down the sides with a spatula.
Pour the melted chocolate into the bowl with the cream cheese mixture and immediately mix together until smooth, about 5-10 pulses in the food processor. Scrape down the sides of the bowl to make sure you incorporate everything evenly. If you notice any lumps at this point, process the batter until it’s totally smooth. Once you add the eggs, you want to mix the filling as little as possible.
Then, add the eggs and pulse until just combined. It will take only a few pulses before the sides need to be scraped down once more. Pulse a few final times to mix everything together. The mixture should be nice and smooth with a few bubbles but no lumps.
How to Fill Mini Chocolate Cheesecakes
To help every cheesecake bake at the same rate, do your best to fill each one with the same amount of filling.
Standard paper liners fit one Tablespoon of the crust and about two heaping Tablespoons of the chocolate cheesecake filling. Because some liners can run small or big, I recommend filling all of the liners about two-thirds of the way full, then doubling back and dividing the rest of the batter between all 12.
Then, tap the pan against the counter a few times to help get some of the bubbles out. If they aren’t removed in advance, the bubbles will raise to the top while baking and burst open, leaving craters on the tops of your cheesecakes.
How to Bake Mini Chocolate Cheesecakes
These mini cheesecakes bake for 17-20 minutes, depending on the color of your pan. Mine baked in about 18 minutes in a light aluminum muffin pan, but darker pans can bake the cheesecakes a few minutes faster. Bake the mini cocoa cheesecakes at 350°C/175°C until the edges of the cheesecakes are set but the very centers are slightly jiggly.
You may end up with some cheesecakes that are fully set and others that are a bit jiggly out of the oven. That’s okay; both will be good! If you prefer firmer, more dense cheesecakes, you can bake them until each one has started to dome a little bit.
Once baked to your perfection, remove the mini cheesecakes from the oven and cool in the pan for about an hour.
How to Remove Mini Chocolate Cheesecakes from a Muffin Pan
At first glance, you might worry about how to remove these mini cheesecakes once they’ve baked. Fortunately, it doesn’t require any special equipment! I like to use clean hands myself, but you can also use a fork or offset spatula.
Once the pan is no longer hot to the touch (so you don’t burn yourself), pinch the very top of a cheesecake’s paper liner on opposite ends with the tips of your fingers. Pull up to unstick it from the pan, then transfer the mini cheesecake to a plate or cooling rack.
If you have long nails or just don’t want to use your fingers, you can also slide a knife, fork, or offset spatula in between the muffin pan and the paper liner. Pop the cheesecake out from the bottom, and transfer to a plate or cooling rack. Metal utensils may scratch your bakeware, so use caution!
Once removed from the pan, chill the mini chocolate cheesecakes in the fridge for at least two hours. When ready to serve, the bottoms of the cheesecakes will feel cold to the touch.
How to Top Mini Chocolate Cheesecakes
I think all mini cheesecakes should have a topping of some sort to signal what’s in it. That’s why my mini Biscoff cheesecakes have melted cookie butter and Biscoff cookie crumbs.
For these mini dark chocolate cheesecakes, I added whipped cream and shaved chocolate. You could also add a chocolate ganache, like the one I use inside my mini turtle cheesecakes, if you want to make these even more chocolatey!
FAQs about Mini Chocolate Cheesecakes
FAQs about Vanilla Bean Cupcakes
Other Recipes You May Enjoy
If you are a cheesecake lover above all else, my mini turtle cheesecakes, mini pumpkin cheesecakes, and mini Biscoff cheesecakes are right up your alley.
If chocolate is your favorite flavor though, I have plenty of recipes using a lot of it:
My double chocolate frozen custard is a favorite in the warmer months. You can even add mini chocolate chips to make a triple chocolate ice cream!
No matter the time of year, my easy double chocolate chip cookies always get rave reviews. These are great on their own or with a glass of milk, especially when still a little warm from the oven.
Indulge in some chocolate for breakfast with my dark chocolate granola on top of yogurt or with milk.
Dish Cleanup: A Lil Messy
I rate my recipe cleanups on a scale of 1 to 5. 1 is only a handful of dishes, and 5 is everything including the kitchen sink.
This mini double chocolate cheesecake recipe has a cleanup rating of a 3. The food processor bowl is the worst of it, so I recommend rinsing it with warm water as soon as the cheesecakes go in the oven. Everything else is pretty easy to clean, including the muffin pan, thanks to those paper liners. You’ll have a handful of smaller bowls and measuring cups, but that’s about it!
Mini Chocolate Cheesecakes Recipe
Thanks so much for stopping by!
If you make these mini double chocolate cheesecakes and love them, please don’t forget to leave a review to let others know how it turned out.
Mini Chocolate Cheesecakes
Ingredients
For the Chocolate Cookie Crust
- 13 (150 g) chocolate sandwich cookies like Oreos
- 3 Tablespoons (42 g) salted butter melted
- ¼ teaspoon salt
For the Chocolate Cheesecake Filling
- 2 oz (56 g) good quality dark chocolate
- 12 oz (340 g) cream cheese 1.5 blocks, softened and at room temperature
- ¾ cup (150 g) granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 Tablespoons (12 g) cocoa powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
Instructions
To Make the Chocolate Cookie Cheesecake Crust
- Preheat the oven to 350°F/175°C, and line a standard muffin pan with 12 paper liners.
- Crush the Oreos in the bowl of a food processor (or with a rolling pin in a bag or parchment paper, then transfer to a medium bowl) until fine. Then, with the food processor running, pour the melted butter and salt through the feeder tube over the crumbs and process until combined.13 chocolate sandwich cookies, 3 Tablespoons salted butter, ¼ teaspoon salt
- Divide the crumbs into the paper liners in the muffin pan, about 1 packed Tablespoon in each. Press the crust into the liners with a small flat-bottomed measuring cup, a spoon, or clean fingers, then set aside.
To Make the Chocolate Cheesecake Filling
- In a small bowl in the microwave (or in a double boiler), melt the dark chocolate until smooth, stirring every 15 seconds. Set aside to cool for a couple of minutes—it doesn't go into the filling quite yet!2 oz good quality dark chocolate
- In the bowl of a food processor,* add the room temperature cream cheese, granulated sugar, vanilla, cocoa powder, and salt, and pulse until smooth.12 oz cream cheese, ¾ cup granulated sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, ¼ teaspoon salt, 2 Tablespoons cocoa powder
- Add the melted chocolate and pulse until smooth. Scrape down the sides of the bowl to incorporate everything.2 oz good quality dark chocolate
- Then, add the eggs. Pulse just a few times until smooth, then scrape down the sides of the bowl once more. Pulse one or more two times until the mixture is evenly thick with no streaks.2 large eggs
- Divide the cheesecake filling evenly into the paper liners, about 2 heaping Tablespoons per liner. The cups will be very nearly full.
- Tap the muffin pan against the counter a few times to release any trapped air bubbles.
To Bake the Mini Chocolate Cheesecakes
- Bake for 17-20 minutes, until the edges are set and only the very centers of the cheesecakes are slightly jiggly. (Some cheesecakes may be fully set while others are still a little jiggly—that's okay!) For firmer cheesecakes all around, bake for an extra minute or two until all of the centers are fully set. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pan for about an hour on a cooling rack.
- When only slightly warm, remove the mini chocolate cheesecakes from the pan. Cover and chill in the fridge for at least an hour, until the bottoms of the mini cheesecakes feel cold.
- Optional: Top with vanilla whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles or shavings, then serve. Enjoy!
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Notes
Recommended Supplies
Nutrition
I’d love to see how your mini chocolate cheesecakes turn out: Take a photo and tag me on Instagram @floralapronblog to share with me, or use the hashtag #floralapronbakes.
A great recipe for chocolate lovers. Instructions are detailed and very easy to follow. I’ve been making mini desserts for a few years and am always on the lookout new recipes. This delicious dessert is so versatile- easy to gift, serve or keep in the freezer.